Not much in my pockets, 2015charcoal drawing, plaster, variable dimensions

all images courtesy of the artist and Exo Exo, Paris

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My favorite torture is to drool over worthwhile shows in places where I am not, like the last solo exhibition of Belgian artist ALINE BOUVY that took place at Exo Exo in Paris earlier this month.

Entitled Sorry, I Slept With Your Dog, the exhibition features an impressive wall made of straw bales sprayed in dark tones. This dramatic rampart supports three large inkjet prints depicting blue threads getting out of bottles like the tentacles of an artificial organism. Additionally a series of plaster cast feet seem to be wedged under the black straw wall. In a corner of the exhibition space, a naked man has been quickly drawn on the wall. Just under this pencil drawing, small plaster objects looking like leftovers that you can find at the bottom of a pocket such as a lighter, buttons, broken cigarette and change among others, have been loosely placed on the floor. The whole installation’s display brought to mind a country fun fair in a dystopian future.

What’s characteristic about BOUVY‘s work are dialogues, stories and tales and this exhibition is no exception. Her works have a narrative structure: they refuse completion or determination as statuesque products; rather, they are in a constant state of flux and have a particular relationship to materiality – specifically, how one material can be made to look like another, without it being presented as an illusion. At once hyperrealist and totally surreal, her work features also moments of play and irony that gives rise to a witty poetic and radical aesthetic.

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ps. ALINE BOUVY’s work has been previously featured on wfw, read more here.